tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8289342.post1926277107961682369..comments2024-03-27T03:57:15.929+05:30Comments on Time and Tide: Obama, Huckabee off a great startPradeep Nairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04873369124947878452noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8289342.post-31649943493819520392008-01-08T01:08:00.000+05:302008-01-08T01:08:00.000+05:30Guru - you missed somehow the best of all presiden...Guru - you missed somehow the best of all presidential hopefuls..Ross Perot.The guy who was also the protagonist in Ken Follet's 'On the wings of Eagles'Maddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18163804773843409980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8289342.post-39719375869098907072008-01-08T01:00:00.000+05:302008-01-08T01:00:00.000+05:30Understanding all this is good of course...but wel...Understanding all this is good of course...but well, trying to figure out who will be better - Obama or Hilary is the difficult task. Most of the time what they promise & what they do is totally unrelated, but that is politics. In the US they have a phrase for that tactic - bait & switch..<BR/>I would still have preferred Bill..It will be an interesting period..Maddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18163804773843409980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8289342.post-34383841580767663822008-01-06T14:48:00.000+05:302008-01-06T14:48:00.000+05:30Hi,I am sorry. that anonymous is me, 'Guru!'. Th...Hi,<BR/><BR/>I am sorry. that anonymous is me, 'Guru!'. That tells a lot about my age!<BR/><BR/>GuruAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8289342.post-71933553105424319772008-01-06T01:50:00.000+05:302008-01-06T01:50:00.000+05:30I do not have a blog fortunately! Some times I use...I do not have a blog fortunately! Some times I use the name 'ram', if I had to comment on societal problems. I am a mere scribbler who happens to be old, live in the West in tact and making silly comments!guruAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8289342.post-48645678312901980862008-01-06T01:39:00.000+05:302008-01-06T01:39:00.000+05:30Guru, thank you so much for taking time to write t...Guru, thank you so much for taking time to write those comments. You wrote very extensively in a similar manner in my posting on BBC some days back. I appreciate readers, like you, who comment with such insight. Do you have blog?Pradeep Nairhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04873369124947878452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8289342.post-10575790344506132192008-01-05T21:08:00.000+05:302008-01-05T21:08:00.000+05:30Just to add to my previous comments:The founding f...Just to add to my previous comments:<BR/>The founding fathers of America were mostly Englishmen who had enough of the King of England and the ease with which he was crowned and ruled. The system they devised for electing the American President was made intentionally cumbersome and the evolution of states and the country after the civil war did make it much more cumbersomeindeed. <BR/><BR/>These days, only someone who can raise tens of millions of dollars can have a go at trying to be presidential hopeful.. There is lot of water that has flow under the bridge from Iowa and these are ealy days.<BR/><BR/>Michael Dukakis, the governor of Mass, and the Democratic candidate was winning the arguments and Bush Snr, the Republican opponent was floundering, until some one dug up the long forgotten history of psychiatric advice given to Dukakis. It started the downward slide for Dukakis and he lost the race.<BR/><BR/>Obabma has not still answered the questions about his past and in particular his boyhood life with a muslim step father in Indonesia, and whether or not he was raised as a muslim. As he gets more and more delegates, he could expect some serious digging of his past from his opponents. Dukakis thought he was almost there, until the psychiatric advice tumbled out, which makes me wonder why these gentlemen jump into the race without even thinking that some one some day will find out the very thing they have hidden in their cupboard.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8289342.post-92024373585432232892008-01-05T18:43:00.000+05:302008-01-05T18:43:00.000+05:30I continue to be surprised at the naievity of Amer...I continue to be surprised at the naievity of American electorates whenever a choice of presidential candidates is presented to them - a governor, a senator etc... They forget that as the sole superpower in the world and a leader of the free world, American presidential candidate should have qualifications other than glitzy talk and presentation and ofcourse the funds that take him/her up to the november elections and beocme the leader of the most powerful country. A governor or a senator, I have seen in my years of residence there in 1960s and 70s have singular ignorance of anything beyond American borders. Even Nixon who was said to have an excellent grasp of foreign affairs failed to understand the political interplay between Soviet Union and China in early 1970s,and the extent to which China had influence in Vietnam. When he and Kissinger worked this out mainly at the behest of Kissinger, America had already lost thousands of their young men in Vietnam swamp.<BR/>George Bush Sr was the only president in recent times who understood the international political dynamics, and he knew what would happen if he ordered his army to march into Baghdad after the allies liberated Kuwait.<BR/>He knew that Saddam, however obnoxious he was, held Iraq together. Bush Jnr, the product of Harward and Yale (good universities not always produce good students!), a state governor did not simply have the ability to see what would happen to Iraq when invaded. Blair, a more accomplished politician went with him, ignoring his own caution.<BR/><BR/>For a start, Obama and Huckabee simply lack the experience required to be the leader of free world. People always compare any young presidential hopeful without experience to JF Kennedy, forgetting thatg his father was an ambassador and he himself was a decorated soldier in WWII. Even he failed to get the Senate pass the Civil Rights bill, which was left to his successor Johnson to cajole his friends there to do it. Obama is no JF Kennedy. I wonder whether he can carry other leaders of the free world who are very experienced in geopolitics. Similar case with Huckabee. In the next 4 years, the American President is going to face with problems in Pakistan, Nuclear Iran, Afghanistan where Talibans have raised their heads, Iraq fall outs and ofcourse the perennial Israle-Palestine problem. He/she may appoint a secretary of state like the academic Ms Rice, but the president has to take strategic decision along with his NATO allies. He/She will have to convince the likes of Sarkozy, Brown and Merkel who are intellectually superior to Obama or Huckabee and more experienced in geopolitics. the only Democrat who has the qualification is Hillary Rodham Clinton. I am also amazed by Republicans in going for Huckabee who could well have resonances in Baptist Churches in deep South and the Bible Belt but little else outside the border. The best Republican candidate they have John Mccain, a vietnam veteran and a highly respected American Senator in the Western world. Some who known history may give an example of Harry Truman who grew in his job. But they forget that he built his business, literally street-fighting in Missouri and hence had tough street-fighting qualities with stood him in goodstead when had to confront the rebellious General MacArthur or to take decision (with Churchill) to drop the two bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8289342.post-31478959413093274792008-01-04T21:20:00.000+05:302008-01-04T21:20:00.000+05:30Good Explanation of the process. You must be very...Good Explanation of the process. You must be very familiar with the US and its election process.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com